Your customers are the lifeblood of your business and customer relationship management (CRM) software gives you the tools to effectively serve them and scale your company’s growth. As the industry becomes more competitive, top CRM companies continue to update the capabilities of their software. Here are three things you need know about CRM software in 2019.
CRMs will start to deliver predictive analytics
It’s not about how much data you have, but rather what you do with it. A CRM generates a lot of data, but in the past, it wasn’t specific or actionable for most companies. This is quickly changing as CRM capabilities allow companies to gain new insights.
In April, for example, Salesforce announced it was adding new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to its Einstein Platform, such as a Prediction builder to predict the outcome of any Salesforce field and identify customers who are close to becoming inactive..
These updates are designed to help businesses go beyond just performing basic business tasks and actually project business outcomes.
This is just one example, but you can expect to see more CRM platforms leveraging AI in the coming year. AI capabilities give businesses a whole new way to be proactive and achieve a competitive edge in the market.
Mobile CRM adoption will continue to grow
The adoption of smartphones and tablets have changed the way businesses operate and interact with their customers. And increasingly, more companies are beginning to prefer mobile CRMs. If you haven’t already, you should consider using a mobile CRM for the following two reasons:
- Your employees will be more likely to actually use it. Companies that used a mobile CRM saw a 62% increase in adoption and usage.
- Your sales reps will be more likely to meet their sales goals. 65% of sales reps that use a mobile CRM have achieved their sales goals as opposed to the 22% of reps that don’t.
Increasingly, employees find themselves working away from the office. If they can access a mobile CRM, they don’t have to be disconnected from important company data. This allows your business to be more agile and helps your employees be more productive.
This rings true for cloud-based platforms as well. In 2008, 88% of CRMs were operated from a premise system but today, 87% are cloud-based.
Data entry will be a thing of the past
For most business owners, manual data entry is one of the most tedious aspects of using a CRM. Hubspot found that 32% of sales reps spent an hour or more on data entry every day.
Data entry is gradually becoming a thing of the past, however, as a result of natural language processing, which analyzes human speech and text and derives meaning from it. According to a report from Global Market Insights, the cloud natural language processing market will exceed $6 billion by 2024.
Companies like Facebook and Google are utilizing natural language processing to analyze search results and offer customers personalized recommendations. For instance, Facebook plans to use natural language processing to identify hate speech more quickly.
Natural language processing helps eliminate manual data entry because it can extract data from emails, social media profiles and other platform integrations, and automatically populates contact records in your CRM system. This frees up business owners and employees to spend more of their time on customer relationships.
CO— does not review or recommend products or services. For more information on choosing the best CRM software, visit our friends at business.com.
CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.
CO—is committed to helping you start, run and grow your small business. Learn more about the benefits of small business membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, here.
